Model the Learning

This post was featured in an episode of  This Week in Ontario Edublogs (Sept. 4, 2019), beginning at 35:54 . In Ontario, students need a minimum of three math credits to graduate high school, one of which must be at the grade 11 or 12 level. For students who are not pursuing a post-secondary path that requires mathematics, and/or who really struggle with math, the grade 11 college-pathway math course (MBF3C) is often the last mandatory math course they need to take to graduate. Teachers of this course face several challenges, such as the range of student abilities, range of student interest (particularly if a student is only in the course because they need it to graduate), and also the wide variety of topics in the course curriculum. Last year, we offered new support for MBF3C teachers in our board. At our first session with the teachers, we had round-table discussions on what they most wanted in the way of resources to help their stude nts succeed.  One of the...

This year, in response to feedback we had received from grade 7-12 math teachers that they would be interested in after-school professional development opportunities, we launched our Mathtastic PD series .  Our Mathtastic homepage Our goal was to offer quality professional development to teachers on a voluntary basis, on topics chosen by our math teachers. A quick poll of educators at the beginning of the year gave us an idea of the top five most-wanted PD topics: 1) Digital tools for teaching math 2) Coding in math 3) Triangulating assessment; Addressing needs of students with LD in learning math  (tie) 4) Creating visuals to support learning mathematics 5) Spiralling math curriculum While our initial goal was to have one session per month throughout the second semester, due to changes in schedules we were only able to have three afternoon sessions between February and the end of May The three workshops we were able to offer this year were: Introduction t...

We just finished another three great days meeting as the Mathematics Leadership Network (MLN) - a group of educators from boards of education across Northeastern Ontario, looking to further our development as mathematics learners and leaders. Part of the learning in this latest round was centred on Michael Fullan's book, Indelible Leadership . In it, he discusses six big tensions when it comes to deep leadership. Two of those tensions - Lead & Learn in Equal Measure , and Feed & Be Fed by the System - really resonated with me. Both of these tensions underscore the importance of reflection in one's practice. When learning (a fundamental part of leading), Fullan quotes John Malloy in saying: "...there has to be...vehicles, protocols, processes to actually reflect upon the learning, to make meaning out of what is emerging from the learning and then articulate from that." In order to give new learning meaning, we need to take the time to consolidate what we l...

It's that time of year again - a time for reflection and contemplation on the past year, and a time for setting new goals for a new year. Calm, and reflective. The past few Decembers, I've participated in the #onewordONT community, choosing a single word that summarizes my outlook and goals for the next year as I move forward in my professional practice. For 2015 , my word was JUMP - jumping into new adventures and taking risks to try new things. For 2016 , my word was REFLECTION - working more reflection into my practice as a teacher, but also helping my students reflect on their learning. For 2017 , my word was PATIENCE - practicing patience with both myself in learning a new role, and with the process of implementing change. It won't happen overnight. PATIENCE was a good focus for me this past year as I work my way toward deeper understanding. Coming out of the classroom, I've been involved in many learning opportunities in my new-ish role as a math co...

One of my goals this year is to work with math teachers to better track observations and conversations in their classrooms, to better triangulate their assessments. I find this is a big jump for many who have been teaching for a while - we are very comfortable with marks on pencil-and-paper tasks, but we're unsure how to assess and track what we see and hear on an ongoing basis.  Just this past week, though, we've been playing with new ways of collecting data that I'm pretty excited about! (To try and wrap my head around this last year,  I asked kindergarten and primary teachers how they best track what they see , and got lots of great ideas!)  At one of our schools, we are implementing new strategies for improving numeracy skills. How can we track this?  We created a paper checklist that can be used by teachers or observers in the moment to track when and how students are demonstrating good numeracy skills: Our "good numeracy skills" checklist, base...

I'm currently reading Start with Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action, by Simon Sinek.  It was a book I picked up at the beginning of the summer when my position this fall was still unknown. After a year as the Renewed Math Strategy Co-ordinator for my board, I was set to rebound back into the classroom. However, there was still a possibility of my board bringing me back as a co-ordinator (which is what ended up happening). Regardless of my position as a teacher or co-ordinator, I was hoping this book could help me lead learning, be it with students or with colleagues. I'm about half way through it now, and giving serious thought to my WHY. What drives me? What makes me want to push myself? Why did I choose this as a career? Through what lens am I viewing my role(s)?  Why find my WHY? According to Sinek, if I want to motivate, if I want to be trusted, and if I want to make a difference, I have to be authentic to my WHY . The more clarity I can brin...

Jonathan So ( @MrSoclassroom ) recently threw out an interesting challenge on Twitter for teachers: What are your top five, life-changing-as-a-teacher moments? His original post on his top five really got me thinking about what has made me stop, re-evaluate what I do, and change direction in how I teach. These are all fairly recent moments for me, so I'm guessing there's a little bit of memory bias in here, but here they are... :) In chronological-ish order of occurrence: 1) Flipping my Classes - Handing the responsibility of learning over to my students was definitely career-changing. I learned so much from my students in terms of how they learn (because they were each choosing to learn in their own way), and how they collaborate, and  I saw first-hand how the allowance of self-paced curriculum can reduce stress and deepen understanding. It was humbling as I discovered my lectures weren't a necessary part of the learning process (students mastered even some of the h...